For one night only, the Blackbird Theatre has assembled a group of local professionals to accompany the high school members of the Blackbird Theatre Academy for a fully staged reading of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet.

           The fully staged reading is done with limited rehearsal, little set or props, and actors carry scripts. The experimental format has become a successful for the Blackbird, as in The Grapes of Wrath this past Winter, and 2008’s Angels in America Parts I & II. “It’s a way to take one of your dream shows and see it done with  this amazing cast,” says Barton Bund. “You might never get a group like this together for a full production, but these people get together for the experience, and it’s truly thrilling to be a part of.”

            The Blackbird Theatre Academy will go on to present Romeo & Juliet with high school actors in a touring format for local schools later this year. In February, Bund will direct a middle-school Julius Caesar and in July and August, the Academy presents As You Like It.  

The Blackbird Theatre Academy is a free program, creating unique performance and mentorship opportunities for students in the Ann Arbor area.